Jackson in Denial

A spokesman for Michael Jackson has been frantically issuing denials of all sorts of things that he has done or is supposedly planning to do in the Arabian Gulf. This one amused me: "Mr Jackson mistakenly entered a ladies room in Dubai, labelled in Arabic." This refers to him being spotted fixing his make-up in a ladies' washroom at Ibn Battuta Mall. I just thought I'd check about these signs, on the basis that virtually all signage in public places in Dubai is in English and Arabic.

Sadly, the signs at IBM are a bit linguistically challenged. No English. No Arabic even! Only little pictures. So this is obviously why Michael got confused. He's seen lots of blokes wearing dresses, and assumed that the character wearing the dress is the male. Quite obvious really.